After spending the first 1,219 games of his NHL career with the Flames, Jarome Iginla would wish Calgary nothing but the best on almost any night. Tuesday will be the exception as they prepare to host his Boston Bruins.

It will be Iginla’s first game in the Scotiabank Saddledome since Calgary shipped him to Pittsburgh last season in exchange for prospects Kenny Agostino, Ben Hanowski and a first round pick that became Morgan Klimchuk.

There is a belief that the Flames, who had been stuck in the mud for years at that point, waited too long to trade Iginla and ultimately paid the price for their inaction by getting a smaller return. From his perspective though, the timing was right.

“I look back and I honestly try not to live and wonder ‘what if I did this or that?’ I don’t think to myself, ‘wow, I waited too long and things are great now.’ The last couple years were probably tough but it was the right time from my point of view,” Iginla told the Calgary Sun.

Before the shortened 2013 campaign began, Iginla had been told that the team might trade him if they fell out of the playoff race. At times, Iginla thought that they might do well enough to warrant keeping him, but that wasn’t the case and he wasn’t terribly interested in signing a contract extension for the sake of participating in a rebuild.

“I also feel like I left everything on the table,” Iginla said. “I wanted to win in Calgary and we were so close and I wanted to give it every shot I had. It was a goal and a dream to win here and I did my best.

“We just weren’t able to get it done.”

Nor are the Flames likely to win it all – or even make the playoffs – this season. Iginla though is in a race against time to win the Stanley Cup. His Boston Bruins have a shot this year, but before that happens, he has a reunion of sorts to attend.